There are currently many websites that allow users to create online collections of photos (usually called “albums”), and then share these albums with one or many recipients. When a user wants to share a set of photos, they need to perform the following set of tasks: 1. upload the image(s) into a particular album; 2. go to a web browser and go to the photo sharing website; 3. select the album that contains the new photos; 4. select/enter the e-mail addresses for the desired recipients; and 5. send the message. While this is a straightforward process, it actually requires a lot of work on the part of the user. In particular, the upload process normally takes a long time, so that the user must endure a long wait before they can proceed to steps 2-5. Also, step 4 can be cumbersome, particularly for users who like to share their photos with large groups. Also, every time that the user wants to share new photos, they must go through the entire process again.
The current state of the art is also problematic for recipients. Since each photo-share is sent as a separate message, a recipient can quickly become overwhelmed with multiple share e-mails, and will not be able to keep track of which photos came in which message. In addition, many people have multiple e-mail addresses, so that they must check several accounts in order to manage all of their incoming photo shares.